Home
HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
HCL Digital Experience 8.5
Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
Installing
HCL Digital Experience provides flexible deployment options that range from proof-of-concept where you can examine and test functionality to a highly available and scalable production environment. Review the planning information to learn more about hardware and software requirements, high availability, scalability, supported topologies, and much more. Select your operating system and then select the installation pattern that most reflects your business needs.
Installing and preparing the prerequisite software
Before you install the digital experience software, make sure that the prerequisite software is installed and configured. Depending on your environment, you might already have the prerequisites, such as a database server and user registry. Verify that the prerequisite software is the correct version, has the required fix packs applied, and is configured to work with the digital experience software.
Preparing the user registry software
You probably already have a user registry that is deployed and configured for your network. Before you install and deploy the digital experience software, make sure that your user registry software is a support version. In addition, you might need to configure the user registry to work with the digital experience software.

HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5 [Legacy Content]
- HCL Digital Experience 9.0
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 9.0 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
- HCL Digital Experience 8.5
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
  - Overview
    HCL Digital Experience (formerly IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager) empowers you to create, manage, and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to virtually all audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications, and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile. and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).
  - Roadmaps to deploy your system
    Review the roadmaps to understand the common deployment, configuration, migration, and integration patterns.
  - Roadmaps to create your website
    Review the roadmaps to understand how to create your website.
  - Online Help
    This Online Help is made available in the HCL Digital Experience Help Center for quick references on how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Digital Experience.
  - Installing
    HCL Digital Experience provides flexible deployment options that range from proof-of-concept where you can examine and test functionality to a highly available and scalable production environment. Review the planning information to learn more about hardware and software requirements, high availability, scalability, supported topologies, and much more. Select your operating system and then select the installation pattern that most reflects your business needs.
    - Planning to install HCL Digital Experience
      Before you install HCL Digital Experience in a production environment, you need to assess your hardware and software needs, possible database configurations, security options, and LDAP server options. Skipping this important step can lead to unexpected results and costly delays.
    - Getting the software
      New and existing users need to register at the HCL Software Licensing Portal and download their entitled HCL Digital Experience software package(s).
    - Installing and preparing the prerequisite software
      Before you install the digital experience software, make sure that the prerequisite software is installed and configured. Depending on your environment, you might already have the prerequisites, such as a database server and user registry. Verify that the prerequisite software is the correct version, has the required fix packs applied, and is configured to work with the digital experience software.
      - Installing and preparing the database software
        You might already have a database software installed. You still need to make sure that the installed database software is a supported version and has the required fix packs applied. In addition, you might need to configure the supported database software to work with the digital experience software.
      - Preparing the user registry software
        You probably already have a user registry that is deployed and configured for your network. Before you install and deploy the digital experience software, make sure that your user registry software is a support version. In addition, you might need to configure the user registry to work with the digital experience software.
        Preparing an Active Directory-Lightweight-Directory-Services on Windows
        If you plan to use an Active Directory-Lightweight-Directory-Services as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it communicates with HCL Digital Experience.
        Preparing a Domino Directory server
        If you plan to use a Domino Directory as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it communicates with HCL Digital Experience.
        Preparing a IBM Directory Server
        If you plan to use a IBM Directory Server as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it communicates with HCL Digital Experience.
        Preparing an Active Directory server
        If you plan to use Active Directory as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it can communicate with HCL Digital Experience.
        Preparing a Novell eDirectory
        If you plan to use a Novell eDirectory as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it communicates with HCL Digital Experience.
        Preparing a SecureWay Security Server
        If you plan to use a SecureWay Security Server as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it communicates with HCL Digital Experience.
        Preparing an Oracle Directory Server
        If you plan to use an Oracle Directory Server as an LDAP user registry, you must install and set up the server so that it communicates with HCL Digital Experience. Oracle Directory Server was formerly known as Sun Java System Directory Server.
      - Preparing a remote web server
        Install and configure the web server plug-in. The IBM WebSphere Application Server provides the plug-in. Configure the web server to communicate with HCL Digital Experience.
    - Installing the HCL Digital Experience software
      The HCL Digital Experience is designed to help create, manage, simplify, and integrate your processes into an engaging online experience. HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager are a part of the HCL Digital Experience package. The product documentation uses HCL Digital Experience as a shorthand for HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager.
    - Installing add-ons
      You can use the Solution Installer through the Configuration Wizard to install and uninstall add-ons to an HCL Portal server instance. The Solution Installer uses the Portal Application Archive (PAA) format as the standard format for application distribution. Portal Application Archive (PAA) updates are not supported in the Configuration Wizard currently. For more information about updating add-ons using a command prompt, see the Managing your existing PAA file section.
    - Uninstalling the Digital Experience software
      Uninstalling the Digital Experience software is a multiple-step process and the method you use is dependent upon your configuration. Removing HCL Portal in a single-server configuration is different from removing HCL Portal from a cluster. Manual uninstallation instructions are provided for a single-server configuration in case of an error situation.
  - Configuring
    Run the following tasks after you install and deploy HCL Digital Experience. They address tasks that are typically run one time and have a global effect. Some configuration changes are made more frequently or do not have a global effect. These tasks are addressed in the Administering section.
  - Backup and restore
    Backup and recovery of data files and databases is an essential operation for any business system, particularly for data and applications that run in production environments. Create and follow a plan for backing up and recovering data on all tiers of your HCL Digital Experience deployment. IBM Installation Manager must also be included in backup and recovery planning. If you back up the HCL Portal file structure and then install a fix pack, your HCL Digital Experience and IBM Installation Manager become out of sync after you restore the HCL Portal file system. This condition is not recoverable.
  - Migrating
    Successful migration requires significant planning and preparation, understanding the tools that are involved, and careful execution of the appropriate steps in the order provided.
  - Integrating
    Integrate HCL Digital Experience with software such as HCL Sametime to enable your users to collaborate more easily. You can also use the unified task list portlet to integrate HCL with your backend business process software, such as IBM Process Server.
  - Administering
    Use the administration tools that are provided with the portal to do various day-to-day administration tasks. There are two methods for editing portal setup: using the administration portlets or the XML configuration interface. The administration portlets are a convenient way to make real-time updates to the portal's configuration. While the XML configuration interface is suited to more advanced administration, including batch processing of updates.
  - Securing
    Security tasks include setting up property extension databases and custom user repositories, configuring and activating SSL, and configuring authentication. In addition, tasks such as activating Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and NIST SP800-131a security modules and configuring external security managers such as Security Access Manager might be required to secure your portal environment.
  - Monitoring
    HCL Portal includes tools and features to help you monitor the portal site.
  - Setting up a website
    Setting up a website includes, creating pages, adding navigation, setting up search, and adding content to the site. Themes are used to customize the portal's look-and-feel. Out-of-the-box templates and the site wizard can help you set up your portal site faster. You can add wikis and blogs to your site and let users tag and rate content on your site.
  - Staging to production
    During portal solution development, the solution is initially developed, tested, and refined on one server or a limited number of servers. The solution is deployed later on live systems, referred to as the production environment. The process of moving the solution from the development environment to the production environment is called staging.
  - Developing
    This section includes developer documentation on extending applications and development assets for HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager.
  - Troubleshooting
    This section helps you resolve problems, use diagnostic tools and tracing to capture HCL Digital Experience system errors.
  - Reference
    View information that can help you use the Digital Experience Help Center including directory conventions, terms of use, trademarks, a glossary, and more.
  - Glossary
    This glossary includes terms and definitions for HCL Digital Experience.
  - Content Template Catalog 4.4
    The Content Template (CTC) is a set of templates that accelerate the process of building a website.

Preparing the user registry software | HCL Digital Experience

You probably already have a user registry that is deployed and configured for your network. Before you install and deploy the digital experience software, make sure that your user registry software is a support version. In addition, you might need to configure the user registry to work with the digital experience software.